Gotcha!
by Katherine's Sue Slayer
Summary: One of Ned and Ted Starling's favorite hobbies is pranking their sister. But she's tired of it. So she's calling in some backup, the master of pranks. For the Star-ling Struck! contest. THIS STORY TOOK 3RD IN THAT CONTEST!


BZZT! Sinead woke to the buzzing of her alarm clock, and immediately punched snooze. But the annoying buzzing didn't stop. She punched it again. And again. And again. But the accursed ringing just wouldn't stop!

Eventually, shaking off sleep, Sinead got out of bed and unplugged it. Then she noticed a small, yellow notecard with an Ekaterina crest on it. A fancy "S" was underneath the dragon. The Starling family crest. Under the crest was one word, a word revealing the culprits who rigged her alarm clock: "Gotcha!" Sinead only knew two people who used that as a calling card: her brothers, Ned and Ted.

Sinead groaned. Her brothers may be, at 15, smarter than most college students, and taking advanced classes at UMass, but sometimes she thought they were dumber than a couple of hockey pucks. Their second-favorite hobby, besides reading books that would give most high schoolers heart attacks, was pranking their sister.

Well, nothing she could do about it now. So she decided to go ahead and get up. She walked into her bathroom, auburn hair falling in her face. But first, the mandatory checklist she went through each morning. She peeled back the shower curtain. Good, no rubber animals. No plastic wrap on the toilet brim, and nothing strange in her toothpaste tube.

After a shower, she pulled on some jeans and a UMass t-shirt. Then she went back into the bathroom to brush her teeth. Big mistake.

As soon as she started brushing, she felt a weird taste in her mouth. Something salty. Oh lovely, her wonderful brothers had covered her toothbrush with salt. She spit it out, then added to the list taped to her wall: "Salt on Toothbrush." Looks like her morning routine just got a little longer.

Most people would have gone and tore their faces off, if they had to deal with what Sinead had to. But instead, she calmly opened her phone and dialed a number she had memorized, one thought on her mind: revenge.

"Hello, Nellie Gomez speaking. Who is this?"

"Hey Nellie, it's Sinead. Is Dan home?"

Dan rolled down the window as the black SUV zoomed through the country roads. He was taking it all in, because there wasn't any fresh air in Boston like out here. He loved being outside, and couldn't wait to get to the Starlings' mansion.

Nellie pulled up to a large house. Dan had seen the Kabras' mansion on TV, Grace's mansion had also been bigger before the Holts had burnt it down, but a mansion was a mansion. He wasn't complaining.

Sinead ran out the door. She obviously couldn't wait to get started. Either that, or Ned and Ted put spiders in her pants. He knew either one was equally possible.

He grabbed his duffel bag, and, with a quick goodbye to Nellie, he ran out the car door and up to Sinead. He couldn't believe his luck. He was getting to spend his weekend living rich, doing the one thing he loved most: pranking. As an added bonus, he was getting rid of a favor he owed Amy by helping her friend. Amy and Sinead had started e-mailing each other about two weeks after the hunt, and were now good friends. So when Sinead complained about her brothers, Amy came up with a good solution. It worked out great for everyone, except maybe Nellie, who had an hour long drive ahead of her with nothing but a dead iPod. And of course Ned and Ted.

Dan hoisted his bag over his shoulder, and showed Sinead his ideas list as they walked in. "We can approach this two ways." Dan explained. "Either we can do one huge prank, or a bunch of little pranks all at once. From what I've heard, the second option looks better."

Something shiny caught Dan's eye. A quarter lay on the wooden slats of the porch. He reached down to grab it, but an arm grabbed his.

"It's glued down." Sinead said. "It's been there since second grade. First prank they ever pulled on me."

"Ah." Dan said, realizing he had underestimated the Starling boys. Now he knew what they were up against.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do."

Ted looked out the third-story window in Ned's room. He had seen everything that had just happened, and was now thinking of a prank so great, it would put whatever Dan Cahill would do to shame. He had hacked Sinead's e-mail back in fourth grade, but just now he was seeing results from it.

Ned had told the butler, Gerald, to go into town and buy as much whipped cream and string and as many plastic spiders as he could find. He knew Dan would want to see the mansion, and he planned to cover Sinead's bathroom with whipped cream and hang the spiders from the ceiling while Sinead was giving him the grand tour.

He saw the yellow Starling Industries van pull into the driveway, and saw Gerald get out, carrying some bags from Wal-Mart. A few minutes later, he collapsed on top of the stairwell, handing the bags to Ned.

Their father had been telling Gerald for years to lose weight or he'd be fired. But unfortunately for him, his mother made amazing fried chicken, and he could never get over his love for the fatty food. He was never fired, however, because he had worked for the Starlings when their father was a boy, and Mr. Starling wasn't heartless.

"Excellent." Ned said. "You can go now, Gerald."

Ted grinned, unable to wait for tonight.

BZZT! Ned woke to an obnoxious buzzing. He had expected it, but not this early. He glanced at the clock, which read 2:00. He stood up, and remembered what he was supposed to do.

In the dark, he reached into the bag Gerald had brought in several hours before. Rather than finding aluminum cans and plastic arachnids, he felt a mushy mass. He flipped on the light, and said in disbelief, "What happened here?"

Almost everything was gone. The bag was full of whipped cream, and the rest was in a corner with the spiders on top of it. The window was opened, and most of Ned's possessions were out in the night air, hanging onto the window thanks to the string.

Ted, who had been sleeping on Ned's couch, was duct taped to the wall, amazingly still asleep. He had always been a heavy sleeper. An S was shaved in his hair. Which could only mean…

Ned raced to the bathroom. It was even worse than his bedroom. The walls were spray-painted pink, and his toothpaste lay on the counter, no doubt filled with something strange and disgusting. His yellow shower curtain was replaced by a pink one with hearts. But Ned ignored them and looked into the mirror. A D was shaved into his hair.

It had, no doubt, been Sinead's idea. She knew that Ned's hair was important to him, and he always tried to make it look good. It was a low blow, but, in hindsight, he had it coming.

D, for Dan. And S for Sinead. They had done this. And just then, a yellow notecard caught his eye. It had the Starling family crest, with a black M next to it. It contained one word: "Gotcha!"


End file.
